Wittnerchrome - Cinevia - E64T PROJECTED

[Pedro]

Hi Folks,

I have been very busy moving to a house plus spending nearly 6 weeks in South America this summer. But I found time to shoot the new filmstocks, and in my house I just have a brand new 1,9 m wide motor screen in the living room!

Yesterday I got the films back from the Andec lab and I want would like to report here the results from my point of view. I have no telecine or scan possibility, so I cannot post anything in digital format. And I believe, that only projecting the stocks one after the other show the real picture quality. Only the big screen shows what is inside the gelatine of a film. The E64T may look great on a tv monitor but when blown up to 2 meters, the lack of sharpness and the richness of grain makes the result to suck.

1. Wittnerchrome 100D (Ektachrome 100D):

COLOR: GREAT-GREAT-GREAT! The film is very very well balanced and shows all deep colors with high intensity, without exagerating! AND it shows a very very rich number of intermediate colors, I have NEVER seen in Super 8! All diferent kinds of greens are present, all the blue-green reflexions of see waves, it´s simply marvelous! Skin reproduction of people of all kinds of skin is marvelous, too! Color is MUCH better than K40 ever has been!

GRAIN:
No visible grain, even when going close to the screen! Much less grain than K40, incredible!

SHARPNESS:
Very sharp reproduction, better than K40. The projected S8 original film appears sharper than a 16 mm commercial print.

STEADYNESS:
perfect steadiness, very smooth film running.


2. Ektachrome E64T

COLOR:
(with camera filter)
very strong colors, tending to exagerate. The color balance is good as well. The stock can be used when the film script implements color exageration.

GRAIN:
very very very strong and significant grain, like the 200 ASA B&W stock. The grains are shining in all rainbow-colors, dancing samba over the complete screen and calling the attention more than the filmed scenery. The grain is destructuring the scene. Can be used in special cases, where heavy grain expresses certain states of mind.
(I am still expecting results from the Italian lab FOTOCINEMA in Rome, where they use a diferent kind of processing, promising less grain.)

SHARPNESS:
besides beeing grainy, the sharpness sucks totally! All looks milky and foggy, remembering the VNF stock!

STEADYNESS:
perfect steadiness, very smooth film running.


3. Cinevia 64T

COLOR
(with camera filter)
natural colors, similar to K40 but not better. Differenciated green reproduction, color balance tends to yellow/green. Good for shooting of nature, forest etc.

GRAIN
similar to K40, nearly not visible, but not as good as Wittnerchrome.

SHARPNESS
very good sharpness, like Wittnerchrome.

STEADYNESS
BEWARE!!! THIS IS THE WEAK POINT OF THIS STOCK!!!
I had 8 cardriges with me. All of them produced a camera noise like a truck. 4 of them blocked totally and would continue running only after taking off the camera and giving some heavy beats. Rewinding for lap resolve is totally impossible. The 4008 camera (new refurbrished) wouldn´t transport the film at all, only the 9008 worked.
The result is as expected: high frequency trembling, even worse than the bad Kodak cardriges 5 years ago!
NEVER AGAIN!!!!


RESUME

the surprisingly absolutly best stock is WITTNERCHROME 100 D!!! It´s worth every cent you spent for it! You will watch it on your screen and will not believe that this is Super 8!

Ektachrome 64 T is a political stock that should force filmmakers switching over to digital. It is so bad, that it seem like color experiments of the very first color film stocks in the 1920ies. May look good transfered on a screen, but for projection it is simply too bad.

Cinevia is of extremly bad mechanical quality. For such a price, I expect a diferent kind of quality.

Pedro

[VideoFred]

Hi Pedro,

Thank you for reporting this!

I have plans to shoot some film myself, Wittnerchrome 100D will be my first choice to begin with.

Now, if you ever have some spare 100D, I'l be happy to do a free transfer test. A few minutes is enough.

Fred.

[avortex]

Pedro, nice to see you again on the forum.
Your information is very useful. I'm making some E64T tests these days, because any person in this forum has a totally different opinion about it...

I will see...

[christoph]

I'm making some E64T tests these days, because any person in this forum has a totally different opinion about it...

very true, so i'm not sure if my opinion is helping anybody, but for what it's worth, the two rolls of 64T that i've seen projected looked pretty much as pedro described.. ie i didnt like it at all, specially not the dancing grain. havent seen any 100D yet though.
++ christoph ++

[mattias]

The E64T may look great on a tv monitor but when blown up to 2 meters, the lack of sharpness and the richness of grain makes the result to suck.

really? i had the complete opposite experience. when i projected my first rolls of 64t i was blown away. sure, it was grainy, but razor sharp and with beautiful colors. then in telecine the sharpness dropped considerably and the grain picked up that multi color quality and started dancing.

a cool look but not a general purpose film at all. it did show much more latitude and fine detail information than k40 though, which made it easier to grade, so that was a plus.

i still think that it's sharper than kodachrome, but kodachrome is one of the softest stocks there are so it's no surprise. (yes i know it looks sharp but that's the contrast fooling you. shoot a wide washed out exterior day and you'll see how soft it really is)

/matt

[AMAT0R]

Cinevia is of extremly bad mechanical quality. For such a price, I expect a diferent kind of quality.

Maybe Herr Klose uses the famous north corean cartridges?

[AMAT0R]

Ektachrome 64 T is a political stock that should force filmmakers switching over to digital. It is so bad, that it seem like color experiments of the very first color film stocks in the 1920ies. May look good transfered on a screen, but for projection it is simply too bad.

Sounds good Ektachrome 64 T: the fifth column of the digital-video companies. But seriously - it's an awful stock, near to Orwo and Svema. I could it accept only for indoor movies (once - twice a year).

[Angus]

I'm with Pedro in the 64T...but I am told that how 64T looks depends greatly on where it is processed....I hand processed mine, having had professional quality results previously hand processing Ekta 160 and slide films.

Might try shooting some more 64T next month, and sending it to Andec. Got to test that Nizo with something

100D just rocks though.

[pippin]

I'm just completing my first 100d and on the strength of this will now order plenty from Andec. My experience with 64T is similar - grainy and lacking in definition.

[Angus]

I'm not aware Andec sells 100D.

Its a Wittner product in super 8.

[Pedro]

I would like to add to my post, that I still am waiting for two E64T films, I sent to FOTOCINEMA to Rome. The processing may influence the result significantly, therefore I wanted to try out a lab different to Andec. Perhaps, these two rolls will come out better, but I doubt very much that any finetunig will bring E64T even close to Wittnerchrome!

[charles8]

Hi Pedro, did you try out the Cinevia, V50 film, this looks good to me when projected...

[Bart Sanders]

Hello,

3. Cinevia 64T

....

STEADYNESS
BEWARE!!! THIS IS THE WEAK POINT OF THIS STOCK!!!
I had 8 cardriges with me. All of them produced a camera noise like a truck. 4 of them blocked totally and would continue running only after taking off the camera and giving some heavy beats. Rewinding for lap resolve is totally impossible. The 4008 camera (new refurbrished) wouldn´t transport the film at all, only the 9008 worked.
The result is as expected: high frequency trembling, even worse than the bad Kodak cardriges 5 years ago!

I have to totally disagree! At least as far as the mechanical, steadiness aspects go. I have shot two rolls of CineVia of the Q4 2005 production run. These films have been shown on various festivals, or events like the Trade Fair in Waghäusel, Germany.

In short:
- Multiple dissolves are perfect and with absolutely no jitter
- All frames are rock steady
- These two cassettes transported without any jams and with smooth ease, no extra noises from the cassette bay.
- Cameras: Canon 1014 and Nikon R10

I don't question Pedro's experiences, but am just carefull with drawing conclusions. One conclusion seems to make sense: what has changed in packaging, cassette sources etc. since the Q4 2005 production run? This can only be answered for by Mr. Klose or better, Fank Bruinsma who is in charge of international sales and contacts.

Frank?

[super8man]

Great post - thanks. Just keep in mind all of these posts are anecdotal in nature and not really scientific. Sort of like a bunch of folks swearing they get better gas mileage with a certain brand of gas...they may in fact really be getting better mileage but their experiences on not comparable or scientific. Merely anecdotal.

In other words - your mileage may vary.

Me? I plan to give E64 a try and also do my own assessment like Pedro. I am guessing my results will be similar to the observations mentioned on this forum (over the past year or so of E64 experiences that is).

Just keeping things on the straight and narrow.

Best,

[aj]

Hello,

.
.
.
One conclusion seems to make sense: what has changed in packaging, cassette sources etc. since the Q4 2005 production run? This can only be answered for by Mr. Klose or better, Fank Bruinsma who is in charge of international sales and contacts.

Frank?

The president of international sales and contacts doesn't visit the forum. Too busy being in charge of himself. Check the one time only posted opinion and vision of the world here: viewtopic.php?t=13970&start=0&postdays= ... highlight= (2nd page)

BTW there have been reports of jamming cartridges before.